Toilet
paper is not the greatest thing since sliced bread -- it can't be,
because toilet paper predates it by over fifty years. Commercial toilet
paper was invented in 1857 by a New Yorker named Joseph Gayetty, who
sold packs of 500 sheets (each containing a watermark with his name) for
fifty cents. The product was called "the greatest necessity of the age"
per its marketing language, so perhaps, sliced bread is the greatest
thing since toilet paper

1956:U.S. Navy Rear Adm. George J. Dufek makes the first airplane landing
at the South Pole, becoming the first man since Robert F. Scott's
ill-fated expedition in 1912 to set foot on the South Pole. Dufek is
also the first American to reach the pole, having piloted the transport
plane Que Sera Sera to bring supplies for the construction of a permanent Antarctic station.

1517: Theologian Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door
of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, criticizing the corrupt
practices of the Catholic Church; the event is hailed as the beginning
of the Protestant Reformation. In 1521, Luther will be excommunicated by
Pope Leo X and labeled a heretic by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

1959:Lee Harvey Oswald makes the local newspapers after he
appears at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, expressing his desire to become a
Soviet citizen. Oswald will make much bigger headlines in November 1963
as the assassin of President John F. Kennedy.

It's traditional that during the baseball playoffs the mayors of the competing cities make a fun bet on the winner. Obviously, each mayor would be on his/her team. During this years National League Championship Series the mayors of St. Louis and Milwaukee bet a Paul Harris Scholar award for the winner to receive. I found that quite refreshing, and unusual.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Grand Central Terminal, located in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, has more than 40 platforms. But one of those platforms is almost never used.In 1871, Grand Central opened its doors. While the building itself stretches from 42nd Street to 45th Street, the terminal as a whole extends — underground — as far uptown as 50th Street. One of the buildings above these tracks, somewhere between 49th and 50th Streets, was a powerhouse for the Terminal. (click below to read more)

On a recent afternoon, Ray Villafane studied a pumpkin face that looked, by turns, like a sad cartoon Popeye, a vampire and the actor Gérard Depardieu. Hating it, he spun the pumpkin to its other side and started over, hacking in bold strokes at its outer skin."Some of my best pumpkins happen when I'm about to throw them away," he said. He then carved an ogre getting its teeth knocked out mid-punch, with a spot for his fist to deliver the blow. (click below to read more)

1974:Muhammad Ali knocks out previously undefeated heavyweight champion George Foreman, winning in eight rounds at the "Rumble in the Jungle" in Kinshasa, Zaire. Organized by promoter Don King, the bout is the first heavyweight championship event to be held in Africa.

The
OmniTouch, a wearable device created by researchers at Microsoft and
Carnegie Mellon University, can transform a hand, sheet of paper or
table into a multi-touch, iPad-style interface.

Mounted on a shoulder, the OmniTouch
can project such images as a typewriter keyboard, a blank notepad or a
map, each tailored to the chosen surface. A depth-sensing camera looks
for cylindrical objects (that is, fingers) and reports to a desktop
computer whether they're hovering, tapping, drawing or "pinching" the
virtual screen. Somewhat cumbersome now, the system is designed for a
future in which we look back on 4-inch smart-phone screens as hopelessly
confining.

1929:The Roaring '20s come to a crashing halt as "Black Tuesday" hits the
New York Stock Exchange. More than 16 million shares are traded in
panic, causing stock prices to collapse completely and thousands of
investors to lose their entire savings.

1998: While still in office as a U.S. senator from Ohio, John
Glenn revisits his earlier career, returning to space as a payload
specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At 77, Glenn is the
oldest person to travel in space, setting another record alongside his 1962 achievement as the first American to orbit the Earth.

Friday, October 28, 2011

By HENRY HITCHINGSPunctuation arouses strong feelings. You have probably come across the pen-wielding vigilantes who skulk around defacing movie posters and amending handwritten signs that advertise "Rest Room's" or "Puppy's For Sale." (click below to read more)